Restoration / Preservation

I (Greyman) would like to open a debate on the subject of 'Restoration' and 'Preservation'. This debate has been running for decades in the art/antiques world.

The photographs on this page show an excavated piece of Japanese sword furniture (Tsuba) that has been both restored and preserved and would be interested in the opinions of people on this.

By now I get call from dealers who have stumbled upon some trivial piece and do not have any idea of what it is or its value. This day the caller told me he had a client who had a Japanese key hole, in awful condition and could he send the owner down to see me. The story was this. 

The chap had recently purchased a house from an elderly doctor and when rotavating the garden he found this odd item. Made of soft metal, this had a rusted spike of metal protruding each side of a central hole, it was a 'Tsuba' Japanese samurai sword guard, Apparently the Doctor had two swords and two sons who played with the weapons (only curio value at that time) and both had been lost and forgotten. As you can see from the photograph, it was in terrible condition, the iron stub was all that was left of a sword blade that may well have been twenty seven or eight inch's long in its day. Judging by the quality of the Tsuba, this weapon would have been fine quality and probably worth several thousands of pounds. 

There has been a debate washing back and forth for many years as to the rights and wrongs of restoration of antiques, preservation is OK if correctly applied.  Restoration, at least in my and the Japanese book is sensible and what would have been done. Several months of careful work saw the Guard removed from the remains of the blade. 

Straightened and cleaned, returned it to (almost) its original beauty. Several hundred years old, made of a Japanese ally called Shakudo (Alloy made from Gold, silver and copper), Shakudo is a deep and lustrous blue black colour. This was embellished with applica and inlay of Silver and gold, this type of sword furniture is often worthy of the highest quality Jewellers work. 

The work in main was preservation, re-patination was essential to some parts as Shakudo if polished or scratched shows as polished copper, and although it will re colour itself, this can take some years. 

The warning is though, never apply yourself to a task in any field of restoration /preservation without good knowledge of the subject and/or advice from someone who has this skill. Apply this rule to everything from furniture to silver, paintings to fabric. 

Greyman